Spain’s relationship with Morocco since the arrival of Pedro Sánchez at La Moncloa via a motion of no confidence, in June 2018, has become an element of permanent conflict between fluctuations. Because from a convulsive beginning, with the President of the Government breaking the tradition of his predecessors of choosing Rabat as the first international destination, he has gone on to a “private vacation” in Alawite territory, which began this Monday and days before aspiring to a new mandate. .
Five years of a tug of war, already usual in other stages between the two countries, but peppered in this case with up to 15 milestones that are difficult to explain. In fact, the constant has been Moncloa’s lack of transparency in each of these initiatives, which have their turning point, from rigidity towards Rabat to bowing to his interests, in the Ghali and Pegasus cases.
What is known is the beginning, which was not rosy at all, when the Prime Minister’s first trip was not to Rabat but to Paris, in search of a rapprochement with one of the main European leaders, Emmanuel Macron. Sánchez made it very clear in his speech at the Elíseo on June 23, 2018: “I wanted to convey the firm commitment of the Government of Spain to the European cause, the firm commitment of the Government of Spain with many of the policies that the President Macron”.
But that trip to our neighbors to the north had its reverse in our neighbors to the south, because the election of the socialist leader, breaking with the tradition of his predecessors, was taken by Mohamed VI as a slight. In Moncloa, this change was justified in that the Monarch was not in the country during those dates and that the agenda of the President of the Government was not going to be changed. Finally, the first meeting took place in November.
After three years of some calm between countries, the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in a hospital in Logroño to be treated for Covid in April 2021, with false documentation, ended up breaking relations between territories with the conflict of the Sahara as a backdrop.
The consequences of this act did not take more than a month to be felt when on May 17 around 5,000 immigrants swam across the Strait, without opposition from the Moroccan security forces, until they reached Ceuta from the neighboring city of Fnideq. A day later, on the 18th, Rabat executed the withdrawal of its ambassador in Madrid, Karima Benyaich. “There are acts that have consequences and they have to be assumed,” the diplomat stated at the time in a clear notice to Moncloa.
Just a few hours later, the President of the Government arrived in Ceuta to try to send a message of calm and forcefulness against the migratory pressure, suspending, precisely, a trip to Paris. During his trip, Sánchez stressed that Spain will act “firmly” to “guarantee security in the face of any challenge, any eventuality and any circumstance.”
Although the case came to public light on the morning of May 2, 2022, minutes before the events of Dos de Mayo began in the Community of Madrid, espionage up to five times with the Pegasus software on cell phones Pedro Sánchez and his Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, occurred between May and June 2021 with the Ghali affair still fluttering. At that time there was also espionage on the Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Arancha González Laya, according to Moncloa. Beyond the announcement, no further information has been provided by Moncloa afterwards.
Precisely the head of Foreign Affairs, fundamental in the Ghali case, would be removed from her position in July 2021 in the government crisis that the president undertook. A movement that was interpreted as an approach to Rabat to try to rebuild bilateral relations between the two countries, with José Manuel Albares at the head of the Ministry.
With the Pegasus case yet to enter the public sphere, on March 18, 2022, another differential event occurred in the bilateral relationship between Spain and Morocco when Moncloa left the solution agreed upon by the United Nations for a self-determination referendum in the Sahara. and accepts Rabat’s autonomy plan for that territory occupied since 1975, in the last days of Franco’s life. A historical turn of the foreign policy of the last 46 years in our country that is known for the leak of our neighbor of a letter between countries, which has never been published in its entirety. It also meant the degradation of the relationship with Algeria as a trading partner. Repeatedly, from the independence forces to the opposition of the PP, passing through the partner in the coalition, he has been requesting explanations. Unsuccessfully.
The rapprochement is consummated with a visit by Pedro Sánchez to Mohamed VI, on April 7, 2022. The Alaouite monarch has the detail of inviting the Spanish president to the Ramadan break dinner, a moment of special significance, but the protocol leaves another detail: in the background you can see the flag of Spain upside down.
On May 2, 2022, one year after the events, the Government made public the spying on the mobile phone of the president and part of his Cabinet in a press conference prior to the Acts of the Day of the Community of Madrid, turning the reception at Puerta del Sol in a national monograph, opening a new crack with Ayuso and thus reducing the complaints of the independentists who had denounced that same espionage during the 2017 referendum before the UN and the European Union. This is how a conflict with the Community of Madrid also larvae that will break out a year later with those responsible for Protocol, preventing Minister Félix Bolaños from going up to the authorities’ platform during the parade.
Three days later, on May 5, the National Court begins the investigation of the case in search of the author of the espionage. The investigations have been archived three weeks ago, alluding to Israel’s “absolute lack of cooperation” to determine how the mobile phone infection occurred and pointing to “diplomatic channels” as an option to resolve the facts. But Spain has not taken any measure in that direction before a country, Israel, which together with the United States -in the last days of Trump- and Spain have become the great legitimizers of the autonomist path for the Sahara.
A new migratory conflict, now on the fence of Melilla, on June 24, leaves at least 23 immigrants dead and doubts about the work of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces. The President of the Government, the same one who in his first decisions in Moncloa decided to host the Aquarius, that ship with immigrants rejected by Italy, assumes a tough speech. “Look at the images, in which the gendarmerie has worked hard to try to prevent the violent assault,” he advanced, before justifying: “It is important to recognize the extraordinary work of the Armed Forces and security forces in Melilla and Ceuta, and the fight against irregular migration in general, and also by the Moroccan government in coordination with us to try to stop a violent assault, which has been well organized, perpetrated, and well resolved by the two security forces”. He avoided focusing, for days, on the victims.
On September 9, Morocco sent a letter to the UN with statements such as “Melilla continues to be an occupied prison” or “Morocco does not have land borders with Spain”, which a spokesperson later clarified to Agencia EFE. The Spanish Foreign Ministry, through its Secretary of State, Ángeles Moreno, responds that both sovereignty is “indisputable”
February 1, 2023 was the date set for the first high-level summit since 2015 between Morocco and Spain, an appointment that Moncloa strove to highlight as proof of the “new relationship”. But that meeting was overshadowed by two absences: that of the ministers of United We Can and that of King Mohamed VI. In the case of the purple ones, due to their position against the shift with the Sahara, they were not included in the delegation. In the case of the Monarch, because he was outside the country, without giving further explanations.
Agreements emerged from this meeting, such as the opening of customs in Ceuta and Melilla, which has not yet taken place, and Moncloa ratifies its position with the Sahara. In fact, the president himself declares that both countries will try to “avoid what offends the other party, especially what affects sovereignty.” A telephone conversation with Mohamed VI remains from that trip in which he summons the socialist leader to a future meeting on Moroccan soil. Six months later, that appointment doesn’t even have a date set yet.
On May 8, the European Parliament’s commission of inquiry transferred to Spain the need to undertake a “complete, fair and exhaustive” investigation into espionage with the Pegasus program against members of the Government and Catalan pro-independence leaders. The community body indicated that there were “clear indications” that it was promoted by Morocco.
The circle came to a close last night when Moroccan media, affiliated with Mohamed VI’s regime, revealed that Pedro Sánchez had just landed in Rabat to spend a few days off with his family. From Moncloa silence is kept and it is only indicated that it is a “strictly personal” trip and financed “with the president’s own resources”. But with the precedents, the geopolitical gesture is evident.
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